NEWS
2025-07-29
Indian Expedition to Canadian Arctic
Editor:Swati Nagar(NCPOR, India)
A month-long fieldwork was conducted around the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS), Cambridge Bay, Canada, to collect deep permafrost cores (up to 2.3 m) along with tundra and active layer soil samples across a 40 km radius in the Nunavut province. The aim was to investigate antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) and bacteria (ARBs) in these frozen environments (Figure 1). Permafrost, a major carbon reservoir (~1700 petagrams), is rapidly thawing due to climate change, potentially releasing greenhouse gases and ancient microbes. DNA sequencing and microbial culturing will be performed to assess ecological risks from thawing permafrost and its impact on Arctic ecosystems.